Airport Experience® News - ACDBE Issue 2026

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

need, then we’re going to move it out of the way. When passengers walk in the terminal, [they’ll be able to see] the ticket counters and passenger screening checkpoints…. We’re going to declutter that prior environment and make it more intuitive. One other thing is…we’re missing that sense of place. The greater Cincinnati metro area, along with northern Kentucky, is made up of neighborhoods. We have an opportunity to tell that story, to emphasize neighborhoods and [bring out] what’s interesting and unique. WARD: I know you’ve had some concessions changes and there are more to come. Are you revamping the program or simply making tweaks? KRAUTER: I would call it a bit of a combination. In some areas, we know we need to do a little bit more than what we’ve done. We’re figuring out the balance between national brands and local brands – I think you need a little of both, ultimately, to deliver the entirety of what we’re trying to deliver for our customers. We’ve heard this drumbeat of airports really emphasizing local, and we’d like to see that. But the other piece of that is that local is hard. It’s hard for the local restaurant operators to transition to the airport environment. It’s so much more expensive and time consuming,

and these are small business owners, and they get stretched thin as they’re trying to manage their operations. Add in the complexities of the airport environment. WARD: Would you be leasing directly with them or ask them to joint venture or subcontract with a prime? KRAUTER: I think it’s a combination of both. With the larger operators, they may have looked at your airport environment and said, ‘we think we can be successful operating in X number of square feet.’ There may be more available that we want to take on at our risk, and we’re going to have a direct relationship [with a small business operator]. It’s going to take more time for us to manage that, but we’re going to do it at our risk. Everybody hopefully wins in that process. WARD: When you mention risk, do you mean investing capital or will it be another approach? KRAUTER: We want to explore a profit sharing kind of approach, or some unique lease arrangements – we want to get creative so we can make it work for the small business owner. It’s exposing that small business to a much larger potential customer base, so they benefit from it and there is absolutely value to it. But there is a value to both the airport and to that small business owner.

Above: Among the local concessions offerings at CVG are Skyline Chili, Graeter’s Ice Cream and VV The Italian Experience. Krauter says the airport will expand its efforts to create a sense of place where possible as terminal upgrades continue.

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AX NEWS JUNE 2026